The 56-year-old music exec told The Sun, “It is a bit annoying if I am honest with you—mainly because it is another label who has now got your artist who you worked with for so many years. But that is the music business, unfortunately. I don’t think anyone else from the band will do that.”

“We had spoken a lot—him and I—about what he wanted to do next,” Simon added. “But I guess he read about Harry [Styles]‘s deal and thought we weren’t interested. My impression was that he wasn’t in any hurry to make a record because he discussed this last year. He was more into songwriting…Of course there is a part of you that goes, ‘Maybe we should have had the conversation.’ That maybe is my fault but it has happened now.”

As for Harry staying with Sony, Simon said, “We spoke about this a long time ago and certain artists do prefer to be signed to an American label and he spends a lot of time over here. This was something we were very instrumental in and it was the result we all wanted so it was great.”

I would wear annoying Simon like a badge of honour. Why should Liam be loyal to him. Simon is a parasite & shows zero loyalty to his acts unless they earn him a bucket of money. Loyalty is a two way street. If Universal had bid more for Harry than Sony did he would have lost him too. It’s called business. Liam did the right thing. Social media made 1D not Simon. Nicole Scherzinger was the inspiration for grouping them together. ITV gave them the platform to get noticed!